From the Aufguss World Championships to a spa near you, discover the theatrical sauna ritual that nearly moved one journalist to tears (in a good way), and where you can try it for yourself.
In Spa Business this month, Cassandra Cavanah reported on this year’s Aufguss World Championships in The Netherlands, joining "hundreds of near-naked heat enthusiasts", in an event that nearly moved her to tears.
A sauna experience that's elevated to an artform, led by a skilled Aufguss Master, this multi-sensory sauna ritual is a wellbeing experience that many are devoted to - how many other wellbeing experiences have their own championships?
The event has been taking place since 2015, seeing around 160 competitors take part in an experience is gaining traction as sauna culture grows in the UK and USA. Of course, sauna experiences are far from new - indeed rituals involving heat are thought to have a history going back thousands of years. Nonetheless, our collective and growing focus on holistic wellbeing is giving new rise to bathhouses and sauna experiences across the country, from the traditional Russian banya steam baths to more contemporary thermal suites. Even so, Aufguss has gained particular traction.
Cassandra writes: "Aufguss comes in many different forms. Classic sessions, that’ve been practised for decades across Europe, see a sauna master’s role as raising the temperature and controlling the wafting of the steam, heat and aromas via creative towel waving. Ritual (or zen) aufguss sessions take guests on an inward journey, including meditation, yoga, sound bathing or breathwork. While full-on theatrical or show aufguss sessions – the focus of Aufguss WM – are best described as an emotion-driven journey of pure-performance art."
The spa at Rudding Park has been very much ahead of the curve when it comes to this thermal art form, introducing it more than a decade ago, and continuing to find its popularity enduring within their luxury destination. At the time, Spa Director, Matthew Mackaness described it, quite accurately, as "theatre meets sauna", and it was his brainchild to bring the artform to the celebrated spa hotel. Here's what he had to say about it:
The Global Wellness Summit writes that while sauna and heat rituals have existed in many forms around the world for thousands of years, Europeans have been looking for ways to make them more of a theatrical event:
"For instance, for a few years in Northern/Central Europe sauna has evolved into a true event (called “Sauna Aufguss”), whose first chapter, “Classic Aufguss” involves “sauna-meisters” administering dozens of targeted aromatherapy infusions using complex towel rituals to circulate heat, humidity and infusions. All played to large, lively sauna “audiences” in spas across Austria, Germany, Italy, Finland and Norway."
Typically, it includes a theatrical towel waving performance that encourages the flow of the heat towards the spa guests, which itself has therapeutic benefits, while other sensations are also introduced such ice scented with aromatherapy oils, and an array of temperatures over the course of the experience.
“Practitioners guide you through experiences such as ‘the Sahara’ for example” said Matthew, continuing: “in World Championships for example, they have fancy dress versions - it’s a really interesting and an all round experience that encompasses all the senses.”
Much like the benefits of any sauna experiences, the advantages of Aufguss are said to range from encouraging a meditative state of mind to physical benefits, such as:
Matthew says: “The first time I saw the art of Aufguss I was on a skiing holiday with my wife in Austria, and they had a sauna meister who lead the experience. It was like nothing I had experienced before and I thought we must have a saunameister when we open our new spa! After the trip I set about finding someone who could come and train our team to do the same thing, but after a year of asking I wasn’t getting anywhere, until I went to Professional Spa and Beauty and someone put me in touch with Sauna Meister, Lay Pang Ong, who is based in Copenhagen and is well-regarded as a pioneer of sauna reinvention.”
Having bought flights for Pang to come to the UK and train members of the Rudding Park team, as well as working with spa members and guests, the enthusiasm Matthew engendered was palpable, so they decided to create regular performances from then on.
At Rudding Park they offer short, complimentary sauna ceremonies for visiting spa and hotel guests, depending on availability, where The Aufguss Master will select a theme for each session from the rituals:
You can also book longer, private sessions.
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